I will say it again, I love music. I have written about my top albums before (attach link here). And now I want to mention some of my top songs. This is not an exhaustive list. There are so many songs I love to listen to. I was trying to keep this list to 10 or less.
Here you go:
- Daylight – Brave Saint Saturn
- Thrive – Switchfoot
- Fun to Love You – The Roamies
- I Celebrate the Day – Relient K
- Under Bridges – Brave Saint Saturn
- Every New Day – Five Iron Frenzy
- Come Way May – Moulin Rouge Soundtrack
- Die Vampire, Die! – Title of Show Soundtrack
- In My Life – The Beatles
- Sinner’s Songbook – The Insyderz
You will see that Brave Saint Saturn (BSS) shows up twice. I really like their work. I can think of many more songs that I could put on this list from them, and they only had 3 albums. The words speak truth and are very powerful to me. I know that Reese (the writer and lead singer of BSS) isn’t a huge fan of “Under Bridges” anymore due to a line about homosexuality in it, but I feel it is still spot on to how God looks at us and how we should look at God. Too often we look at God as the clean-cut perfect form of humanity, but this song reminds us that God/Jesus is in everyone. He can be in the homeless person that hasn’t had a shower in months and is yelling at people. He can be in the drug dealer. He can be in the person that treats his/her family poorly. No one is perfect, and God knows that. That is why He came to Earth to sacrifice himself for us. That leads me to the other BSS song of “Daylight”. This is a song of hope in the midst of depression. Just keeping ones eye’s focused on the hope of Christ (the daylight) during the night of troubles is the hope that we all need.
“Thrive” by Switchfoot is an anthem that reminds me that I need to be more. As the chorus states, “I want to Thrive, not just survive.” I am someone that can easily, and often, is perfectly fine with just surviving. I live a good life and that makes it easy to just go on day by day and do the same thing all the time. But I need to do more. I feel more of life when I am better connected with God. I tend to thank Him more often for the little things (as well as the big things) when I have that thriving connection. But it does rely on me wanting to be more than just a survivor.
“Fun to Love You” is just a fun pop song by The Roamies. Alexa and Rory are great people with a lot of love for people and life. This song is a reminder to me that fights in marriages (and life) will happen, and they certainly happen with my wife and I, but that when they do that you need to bring the fun back. Life is better and more fun with my wife in my life and when we are on good terms life is even better. And that it is fun to love my wife, and this song is a friendly reminder to keep that love at the surface as much as possible.
Relient K’s “I Celebrate the Day” is the best Christmas song ever. As I have stated before. This is a perfect song to remind us that God came to Earth as a baby and grew to a man that sacrificed Himself for us. And the song asked the question, “When you opened Your eyes did you realize that You would be my Savior?” Isn’t that an interesting question? When Jesus was born, He was fully God and fully man. So, He was a baby. He had to learn to talk and walk. So, did He know when He was born as a baby that He would one day save me (and all who believe) from my sins? I love that. I can’t think of anything more perfect for Christmas song. It is one of the only Christmas songs I will listen to year-round.
FIF’s “Every New Day” is considered one of their best songs by most people that like Five Iron Frenzy. I agree completely. This is a hymn in many ways. This song talks about growing up and being more as you get older, “I want to fly higher”. It sings of hope (a common theme from Reese Roper). It has great horns at time, but not as much as some of their songs. This song is a more lowkey song compared to many of their songs, but it is a very powerful song. There will be struggles in life, but with God we can overcome them.
“Come Way May” from the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack is a great love song. I can remember seeing this movie with my wife, and how we both loved singing this song together. That is why this song is on the list. We sing this song together any time it comes up. Ewan and Nicole do a great song signing it, but it is so much better with my wife and I singing it (even though we don’t sing nearly as good as they do). As the song say, “I will love you until my dying day.”
From the Title of Show soundtrack, you get the song “Die Vampire, Die!”. NOTE – This song has foul language in it so don’t listen to it with your kids or at work. I love this song because it is about telling the world that they can’t tell me what to do. I realize this is a song that is a “you do you” type song, and that I have some issues with that concept, but this song is more than that. This song is about not letting the world tear you down. Don’t let others treat you like crap just because you may not be as good at something as someone else.
“In My Life” by The Beatles is one of my favorite songs by them, hence it being on the list. Picking a Beatles song is hard because there are a lot of really good one. I like this one so much because it is another song about life. I like songs that are about one’s life as a whole. Life is more than a single moment. Life is a series of events, and some will be good and some will be bad, “Some are gone, and some remain”. As I have been writing this last year I have these memories from the past and how they bring me joy when I think of them. That is what this song is about in many ways. I think that is why I enjoy this song so much.
Last, but certainly not least, is “Sinner’s Songbook” by The Insyderz. Yes, I realize this is the fourth song with Reese Roper singing in it, sorry. This is an amazing collaboration song written by Joe Yerke of The Insyderz. It is the title track from the album as well. I love this song because it is about how we are all sinners, every single one of us, and how we all need to unite. This is another song about how bad things are going to happen in life, and we don’t need to hide them from each other. We should be open with those around us that we trust and those that can help us. As the song says, “As we stand, hand in hand, grateful for the mercy that we can’t understand.” We get mercy from God, but we can be there for each other. And to top it all off you get Joe Yerke, Reese Roper (FIF) and Matt “MoJo” Morginsky (O.C. Supertones) all singing a verse of the song.
I think I may do this yearly. With the way music apps now work now I think I may post my top 10 songs that I listen to each year after the app gives me my list. It may be interesting to see how things change over the years, or how it compares to this original list.